This 3 day road trip itinerary for High Country Victoria includes the charming country towns of Beechworth & Rutherglen, King Valley & Rutherglen wineries, lovely country pubs & a few of the best stops on the Silo Art Trail.
High Country is one of my favourite regions in Victoria – there is so much more to see & do than you could manage in a single trip. The area around Beechworth, Milawa, King Valley & Rutherglen is particularly charming, known for its gourmet food, family-owned wineries and elegant, heritage-listed country towns. It’s the perfect place to escape for a long weekend!
This itinerary is based on our most recent 3 day trip to High Country, but I’ve added other recommendations or alternative stops, based on previous trips.
It’s designed for travelling to & from Melbourne, as we did, but if you’re coming from elsewhere it is easy to adapt, as the sights in High Country are relatively close together.
Where to stay in High Country Victoria
Beechworth is a great place to stay in High Country Victoria, because it’s well connected to several other destinations of interest, and is a thriving country town in its own right. Beechworth is one of the most charming country towns in Australia, and the high street has plenty of cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants that you’ll have everything you need on your doorstep.
Twelve on Albert, Beechworth – On our most recent trip, we stayed at Twelve on Albert in Beechworth, which was a great base for exploring the region. Twelve on Albert is four-star accommodation, with comfortable, country style rooms.
Pickett’s Cottage, Beechworth – Next time we’re in High Country, I want to stay here. Pickett’s Cottage has beautiful, French provincial styled apartments in the centre of Beechworth that look dreamy for a weekend stay.
Ned Kelly’s Marlo Cottage, Beechworth – A gorgeous three-bedroom cottage in a historic 19th century building in the heart of Beechworth, this cottage looks perfect for family or groups!
French Cottage, Beechworth – Another beautifully restored three-bedroom cottage in Beechworth, with heritage features, and modern kitchen and bathrooms.
Find more accommodation in Beechworth
Day 1: Melbourne to Beechworth
You’ll spend most of the morning driving from Melbourne to Beechworth. On our last trip, we just made a coffee stop to break up the drive, but if you wanted an even slower start to the day you could leave later in the morning, and make Fowles Winery your first stop for lunch, along the way. You’ll still have a bit of driving to do though, so it’s not much fun for your designated driver.
Morning: Melbourne to Beechworth
Option 1: Coffee Stop in Euroa
- Drive Time Melbourne to Euroa: 1 hr 50 mins (164km)
- Drive Time Euroa to Beechworth: 1hr 15 mins (122km)
We stopped in Euroa for a coffee to break up the drive from Melbourne to Beechworth on our most recent trip, which worked well for us. Euroa is a tiny, one-street town, so we didn’t spend too long here but it was perfect for a quick coffee stop.
We had coffee at Cafe 56 in Euroa, which has the most mouthwatering, proper country-style cake cabinet, as well as a small shop filled with locally made jams, chutneys and chocolate. We couldn’t help picking up a passionfruit jam, and were stuck deliberating for ages – so many lovely and unusual options!
Option 2: Lunch & Wine Tasting at Fowles Wines
- Drive Time Melbourne to Avenel: 1 hr 30 mins (125km)
- Drive Time Avenel to Beechworth: 1 hr 35 mins (160km)
This option is better if you’re happy to have a slower start to the day. You can break up the drive from Melbourne to Beechworth with a stop at Fowles Wines in Avenel, which is one of the loveliest wineries in the Strathbogie Ranges, a small wine region that flies under the radar.
Fowles Wines has a jaw-dropping cellar door, with a tasting room that has beautiful views of the Strathbogie Ranges, a stunning restaurant and a sprawling outdoor area, which serves delicious frozen (frozen rose) in summer.
We visited Fowles Wines on another weekend trip, when we were staying at the luxurious Mitchelton Hotel in Nagambie. It’s such a gorgeous spot, so it could be worth a detour if you’re not often in Victoria.
See the Giant Ned Kelly Statue in Glenrowan
This is a quick stop, for anyone who would get a kick out of seeing a larger-than-life tin Ned Kelly statue. Legendary Australian bushranger & outlaw Ned Kelly was born in Glenrowan and lived in the area.
Afternoon: Beechworth
Check into your hotel and spend the afternoon & evening in Beechworth, one of the most beautiful towns in High Country Victoria. Beechworth is one of Victoria’s Gold Rush towns, with a main street lined with 19th century architecture and more than 30 National Trust-listed buildings.
Tanswells Commercial Hotel
Tanswells Commercial Hotel is the best pub in Beechworth, and one of my favourite country pubs in Australia. Book a table for lunch and enjoy a high quality pub meal. I love the historic dining room and front bar.
Beechworth Honey
Beechworth Honey is one of Australia’s best honey producers, and you can visit the flagship store and tasting room in the heart of Beechworth. They have a mind boggling number of varieties of honey to try, which you can sample in the tasting room. We left with six different jars of honey!
Head back to your accommodation to relax for a few hours, before dinner & drinks in Beechworth in the evening.
Vino Bar & Bridge Road Brewers
Beechworth has no shortage of small bars and restaurants. We had a glass of wine in the sunny courtyard at Vino Bar, before heading for a casual pub dinner at Bridge Road Brewers.
Bridge Road is a well-known craft brewery, and you’ll find their beers all over Victoria. Their Beechworth brewery is a great spot for a casual meal, although you will want to book a table on weekends – it gets very busy with local families and visitors. The food here is SO good, highly recommend the pizzas!
Day 2: Rutherglen Wineries
On your second day of your 3 day trip in High Country Victoria, explore the Rutherglen wine region. Rutherglen is well known for its fortified wines, but you’ll find the usual suspects of chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz, and others, at the major wineries as well.
At all three Rutherglen wineries, we were looked after by extremely knowledgeable, warm and hospitable staff, who were truly passionate and completely unpretentious. Was it a coincidence that they were all in their 50s & 60s? Maybe not! Passionate locals with plenty of knowledge to share made the perfect hosts.
Morning: Rutherglen & Corowa
Breakfast in Rutherglen
Rutherglen is a small & elegant High Country town, and part of the Rutherglen wine region. It’s one of my favourite High Country towns, and the most charming country towns in Australia, for its beautiful main street, lined with heritage facades.
Rutherglen is a 30 minute drive north of Beechworth, and is only 15 minutes from the Victoria-New South Wales border. Get coffee & breakfast in Rutherglen at one of several cafes along Main Street, such as The Other Place, which has a leafy courtyard.
Corowa Whiskey & Chocolate
It will still be too early for wine tasting, so drive 15 minutes north to cross the Murray River and the state border to Corowa, in New South Wales. Corowa Distillery is an award-winning whiskey distillery, but they also sell incredible chocolate & liquorice, from Junee Chocolate from the distillery. We stocked up!
Afternoon: Rutherglen Wineries
Spend the afternoon visiting some of Rutherglen’s best wineries. It was easy to see why Rutherglen is such a popular tree change for those who enjoy the finer things in life – the elegant wineries combined with the charming heritage towns, and the wide open spaces is a tempting lifestyle change.
All Saints Estate Winery
The best known winery in Rutherglen is All Saints Estate, a historic family-owned winery in a red brick castle inspired by Castle Mey in Scotland. All Saints was established in 1864, making it one of the oldest wineries in Australia, and was founded by two Scottish brothers who emigrated to Victoria.
The beautiful castle and grounds are complemented by the modern, light filled tasting room and two on-site restaurants. We enjoyed our wine tasting at the bar, before moving to the casual restaurant, Bonnie, for lunch. Bonnie has an idyllic setting in the garden, overlooking a small pond and the vineyards.
Stopping for lunch is a good opportunity to have a breather from tasting wine, especially if you’re planning to go to two more wineries in the afternoon.
Campbells Wine
Campbells Wine is another historic, family-owned winery in Rutherglen, established just a few years after All Saints. The elegant, bright white tasting room building and grounds are beautiful, and we enjoyed a very leisurely tasting.
Unlike some of the more heavily touristed wine regions like the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula, in Rutherglen the experience was extremely relaxed and we never felt rushed. This is a beautiful winery, and one of my favourites that I’ve visited in northern Victoria.
Stanton & Killeen Winery
Our final stop was Stanton & Killeen, a 7th-generation family owned winery, today run by a dynamic mother-daughter duo. Stanton & Killeen have an impressive range of fortified wines, as well as interesting Portuguese varietals you’re unlikely to find at other wineries in Australia.
We had a very long and enjoyable chat with the gentleman working in the tasting room, and probably could have stayed talking all day! I loved the rustic, country aesthetic of the tasting room shed, which felt so very Australian.
Chiltern
On your way back to Beechworth, stop in the beautifully preserved village of Chiltern. Twenty buildings along Chiltern’s main street are owned or listed by the National Trust, and walking down the street feels a bit like stepping back in time. It’s a great spot for a photo spot!
Beechworth
Back in Beechworth, we stopped by Hotel Nicholas, known to locals as The Nick, which is a gorgeous country pub with emerald green interiors. It has a lively atmosphere, and does feel a little bit like you’ve been transported to Ireland.
Afterwards, we had dinner back at Bridge Road Brewers, for a second night in a row. We were there on a busy weekend, and it was easier to get a table here than at a restaurant, but the food was also so good that we were (uncharacteristically) keen to go two nights in a row.
Day 2: High Country to Melbourne
It’s your last day in High Country, but there’s still plenty to see before you head home. On our last day in High Country, we spent the morning in Beechworth, stopped in the King Valley for a wine tasting & then followed the Silo Art Trail on our way home.
Morning: Beechworth
Coffee & Breakfast in Beechworth
We started our last day in Beechworth with coffee at Project 49, a charming cafe, providore & wine store that sells small scale, locally produced food & wine.
Beechworth Bakery is a bit of a touristy spot, with several outposts around regional Victoria, but we couldn’t resist trying something from the flagship bakery before we left town. Party pies (mini meat pies) were my absolute favourite tuckshop treat when I was a child, so I couldn’t go past the party pie tasting tray, of six different flavours of party pie.
The line up included classic steak, cauliflower & broccoli, chicken & leek, Sri Lankan curry, “Ned Kelly” and potato pie. Yum!!
Burke Museum
By this point, we felt like we’d spent the whole weekend eating & drinking (accurate), so we made an effort to find something historic or cultural to see before we left town. The Burke Museum fit the bill perfectly. It’s a small, regional museum with a few interesting exhibits, my favourite of which was the recreation of a 19th century Gold Rush town streetscape. You could spend 30-60 minutes here.
The Burke Museum is named in honour of Robert O’Hara Burke, who lived in Beechworth until his ill-fated expedition, now known as the Burke & Wills Expedition. The expedition was intended to cross Australia, from Melbourne in the north to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the south. Seven men died, including the leaders, Burke and Wills. Burke is somewhat of a controversial figure, and is accused of poor leadership. History suggests he was woefully underqualified for the position. Burke was extremely well-regarded in Beechworth, which is reflected in the Athenaeum being renamed in his honour.
Midday: Cheese & wine in the King Valley
The King Valley is one of Victoria’s loveliest wine regions, renowned for its Italian varietals – especially prosecco. Stop in the northern part of the King Valley on your return journey, before driving towards Melbourne with a few small detours for the Silo Art Trail.
To visit more of the King Valley, I recommend finding accommodation in the King Valley and staying overnight. Otherwise, you’ll risk driving back to Melbourne very late into the evening, and it will be a very long day of driving.
Milawa Cheese
My favourite stop in the King Valley is not even a winery, but Milawa Cheese. Milawa Cheese has some of the best cheese in Victoria, and they offer an excellent cheese tasting, which includes a very wide variety of styles of cheeses. I loved it on my first visit, years ago, and made sure we returned on this trip!
Pick up some cheese, but make sure you have an eski or some way to keep your cheese cool in the car on your drive home if you’re taking some home with you.
Brown Brothers Winery
Brown Brothers is one of the largest winery operations in the King Valley, and makes a wide variety of wines. Brown Brothers has a beautiful cellar door, with a large (& busy) tasting room, as well as an elegant restaurant and casual lawn area, where you can enjoy a glass of wine and some snacks on a bean bag. There’s often live music on the weekends.
The tasting at Brown Brothers is extensive, with lots of wines to choose from, however the experience is much more fast-paced and a bit less personal than at the wineries in Rutherglen, or at smaller wineries in the King Valley.
Afternoon: Victorian Silo Art Trail
The Victorian Silo Art Trail is a mammoth public art project, with 23 artworks spanning four regions of Victoria. Artists from around the world paint largescale murals and artworks on silos across regional communities in Victoria. You can see four artworks on the silo art trail with a 1 hour detour from the drive back to Melbourne.
The detour for the Silo Art Trail starts near Benalla, with four stops within a 30 minute drive of Benalla. It’s an out & back detour, but I think it’s worth it! And it gives you another stop that isn’t just about eating and drinking 🙂
Goorambat Silos & Goorambat Uniting Church
The first stop of the Silo Art Trail is at Goorambat, a 15 minute detour from Benalla. The Goorambat Art Silos are several artworks across multiple silos and sheds, painted by renowned Melbourne artist Jimmy Dvate between 2018 to 2021.
The Barking Owl is an endangered species, which used to inhabit the area. The painting of three Clydesdale horses represent the days of farm work that have gone by. Don’t miss the painting of a Nankeen Kestral on the south side of the buildings – we almost missed it, and just happened to see it when we were making a u-turn.
One minute down the road, don’t miss the beautiful mural inside Goorambat Uniting Church. The church is easy to miss, and may even look closed, but take a closer look – you will likely be able to go inside.
Devenish Art Silo
The Devenish Art Silo is a 10 minute drive from Goorambat, and is my favourite art silo along this trail. Three silos painted by Melbourne artist Cam Scale depict a WW1 nurse, a modern female military medic, and a solider representing the Australian Light Horsemen. The artworks were unveiled on ANZAC Day in 2018 & 2019, and is a tribute to those who served in the military. Fifty men & women from Devenish enlisted in the military during World War I, which was a staggering 1 in 6 residents. Seven of them never made it home.
On Remembrance Day in 2021, another artwork was added to commemorate Explosive Detection Dogs.
St James Art Silo
The St James Art Silo was painted by artist Tim Bowtell, and celebrates St James’ history as the home of the first Coles grocery store. Sir George Coles grew up in St James, and after taking over the St James General Store from his father, expanded it into the supermarket empire that it is today. The other mural depicts grain transportation, which was a significant industry in St James in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Late Afternoon: Benalla to Melbourne
The final stop of the trip is a brief one, for coffee in Benalla before the final stretch back to Melbourne. Benalla is a larger regional town, with lots of cafes and other amenities. We stopped at Zeus Coffee because it was the only one open in the late afternoon when we were passing through. Benalla is a 2 hr 15 min drive from Melbourne.
That’s it! I hope you found this 3 day itinerary for High Country Victoria useful and that you enjoy your trip.
Hello! I’m an Australian travel blogger, living in Melbourne, Australia. I grew up in Brisbane, studied in Paris, lived & worked in New York City and now live in Melbourne, Australia.
I love sharing specific and useful recommendations, itineraries and guides for the most beautiful things to see, do, experience & eat wherever I go.
My favourite travel destinations are Australia, New York City & surrounds, France, Greece & Japan, but I’m always excited to explore somewhere new!
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